There are many scenarios where we wish to imitate a specific author's pen-on-paper handwriting style. Rendering new text in someone's handwriting is difficult because natural handwriting is highly variable, yet follows both intentional and involuntary structure that makes a person's style self-consistent.

We present an algorithm that renders a desired input string in an author's handwriting. An annotated sample of the author's handwriting is required; the system is flexible enough that historical documents can usually be used with only a little extra effort. Experiments show that our glyph-centric approach, with learned parameters for spacing, line thickness, and pressure, produces novel images of handwriting that look hand-made to casual observers, even when printed on paper.

They have created an algorithm that can take a sample of handwritten text, examine its qualities, and then write any text in the same style.

There are already typefaces in word processing programs that produce text in a fairly uniform handwritten style. But what Tom Haines and his fellow UCL researchers have done is create software that they claim reproduces the messy details of any individual writer's hand.

They call their system My Text In Your Handwriting and have tried it out on samples of handwritten text from historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln and the creator of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.